Tantrum on Ice
House on Red Corner · 2007-11-30
Yesterday, EJ granted me the priviledge of being able to sleep in until eleven o’clock.However, as soon as the bowls of ceral were consumed, she started to dress herself and once she got both pants and a shirt on, she began calling for her coat. The end result was a funky little outfit that only a 2 yr old is capable of throwing together, right down to the boots on the wrong feet (How can they be the wrong feet if they are the only ones you’ve got!?!)
With that force of motivation driving us, we both got dressed and headed out the door. On the way to whereever it was we were going, I decided what it was that we were to be doing. So we got off the train at 34th st and walked up 6th Avenue straight to Bryant Park.
It had been raining so, I knew that we would be able to get in easily, and of course we did. Then we settled the special equipment demands and stowed our gear, ready for some fun at a new activity.
Ice Skating!!!!
At first, it was difficult to get her to support her own weight but she was game to try. Then after a couple of laps we had the worst happen. She decided that she had had enough when we were on the otherside of the rink from the entrance, I had already been warned about carrying her while I skated, and she did not want to do anything at all. So, she threw herself on the ice and had a perfectly practiced tantrum.
I got her off the ice, and we had some chocolate milk and popcorn. Then the Zamboni came out and resurfaced the ice. After that performance was nearly over, it was all I could do to restain her from rushing out on the ice again. Once everybody was given the all clear signal, we went out on the ice and did several quick laps where she was actually holding her balance really well. Then I slowly eased us into a one handed hold and made her provide her wn locomotion before I startedto skate backwards and puull her along- this was a very different shift in her balance. We ended up in the center area where the figure skating and beginner’s lessons happened.
There were colored cones set up for practicing skills. These were really quite attractive to EJ and she wanted them So, I let her stand on the ice all by herself and she decided that she wanted to collect the cones. I et her go, and very quickly it was quite apparent that she was ice skating. She did not know that is what she wasdoing, but she was doing it. Soon we were skating all over the beginner’s area and covering all sorfts of distances by herself. And the smiles were enormous. So much fun she was having!
Then as she was beginning to get more and more tired she wanted to be pulled aroud the rink- but at this point the compter geek who hasn’t had much exercise lately was starting to feel it in his back, so we had to leave before there was yet another meltdown on ice.
I am so proud of her for learning to ice skate on the first day. I suffer no illusions, she will fall and need more practice the next time she goes, but I am very aware that she is at a stage of deveopment where she is poised and ready to learn all sorts of things.For instance, she is currently opening all the applications on the Mac mini in the living room, probably looking for Blues Clues.
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